The Poetry of Devotion w Craig Brandis | July 30 – September 3 | Zoom

What does it mean to write toward something you can’t quite name:  the sacred, the ineffable, the ecstatic, the sublime?  Devotion, as a poetic impulse, transcends religious tradition. It is a practice of sustained attention to what we love most deeply, to what won’t let us go, to what exceeds ordinary language. We will study how poets across time and cultures have found form for their deepest desires and shaped that longing into art — then bring those lessons to bear on our own work. Reading list: Rumi, Hafez, St. John of the Cross, John Donne, Rilke, Denise Levertov, Mary Oliver, Christian Wiman and others. Create and share your work in a supportive environment that values rigor, exploration and joy. We hope you will join us.

Register for this workshop

Teacher:
Time:
Thursdays, July 30 – September 3, 6:30 – 8pm Pacific Time
Location:
Zoom
Total Fee:
$249.

 

The Poetry of Resistance w Craig Brandis | April 2 – May 7 | Zoom

What does it mean to write poetry as an act of resistance?  This workshop starts from a simple conviction: writing poems is a moral act. When we write them fearlessly it becomes a public act, one that we do on behalf of others. Doing so means moving beyond the self, finding new truths that liberate and sharing them with the world. We’ll learn by pairing poets who paid a price for telling the truth—Akhmatova, Celan, Lorca, with poets like Lorine Neidecke, Janet Lewis and William Stafford who bore quiet, difficult and effective witness by simply not looking away. They show us that resistance can occur not only when speech is punished, but when language refuses to lie, dramatize, soothe or absolve. Then we will apply those lessons to our own work. Build and share your work in a supportive environment that celebrates risk, clarity and discovery. Come join us via Zoom!

Time:
Thursdays, April 2 – May 7, 6:30 – 8pm Pacific Time
Total Fee:
$249

Register for this workshop:

Raymond Carver Writing Festival Poetry Award

In May 2025, I was named a co–first place winner in the Raymond Carver Writing Festival Poetry Contest. The award was presented in Clatskanie, Oregon—Raymond Carver’s hometown.

Poetry Craft: Tools for Moving Beyond the Self  | Jan 15 – Feb 19 | Zoom | Attic Institute

Looking for new poetic territory to explore? Maybe it’s time to move beyond the “I” in your poems. Tools like persona, mask, and re-framing language and worldview can help poets look through and beyond the self. They help create distance and refraction between poet and subject. We will explore how some modern masters use these tools to reveal truths the self resists. We’ll then try them in our own work. Share your work in an atmosphere of acceptance and celebration. Reading list: poems from Ai, Patricia Smith, Louise Glück, and others. Poetry Craft: Tools for Moving Beyond the Self w Craig Brandis | Jan 15 – Feb 19 | Zoom | Attic Institute

 

Reimagining Poetry Forms Workshop w Craig Brandis | Sep 18 – Oct 23 | Zoom

Forms can help quiet the mind’s intention and open up new realms of discovery. Let’s look beyond traditional forms to see how some modern masters are updating and reinventing poetry forms to suit their needs. We will then apply those lessons to our own poems. Share your work in an environment of acceptance and exploration. Discover how your poems start to take on new vigor and vitality. Reading list: poems from Jericho Brown, Dianne Seuss, Wendy Xu and others. Come join us!

Thursdays, 6:30 – 8:00pm Pacific Time, Sep 18 – Oct 23 (6 weeks) on Zoom

More info here.

The Art of Prose Poetry Workshop w/ Craig Brandis | July 10 – Aug 14 | Zoom

Have you been wondering how to make exciting poems that combine the best elements of poetry and prose? The secret to prose poetry lies in layering cadences within narrative verse. Let’s focus on building layers of rhythm, emotional resonance and imagery within storytelling. We will then apply those lessons to your own poems.  Watch your poems start to blossom with new depth and vitality.  Reading list: poems from Carolyn Forché, Charles Baudelaire, Claudia Rankine, and other innovators in the form help light the way. Share your work in an environment of acceptance and exploration. Come join us! Give your poems fresh cadence and depth in a new form, merging the best of poetic and narrative traditions.

More info and registration here. 

Music of Poetry Workshop w/ Craig Brandis | May 1 – June 5 | Zoom

Register for this workshop.

Have you been wondering how to make your poems grab the reader right away and also linger in the mind after their finished reading? Musicality of poetry is the answer. Let’s gather to study how some modern masters make their poems sing, without relying on traditional metrical structures. Let’s focus on rhythm and pacing, the use of silence, flow, lyricism and emotional resonance. We will then apply those lessons to your own poems. Discover how your poems start to sing out. Share your work in an environment of acceptance and exploration. Reading list: poems from Ocean Vuong, Michael Zapruder, Ada Limón and others help light our way. Come join us! Give your poems fresh sound and meaning.

Craft of Poetry Workshop: Voice and Vision w Craig Brandis | Feb 27 – Apr 3 | Zoom (FULL – Waitlist Only)

Have you been wondering how to move your poetry practice to the next level? Would you like to share your work in an environment of acceptance and discovery? Leveling up means expanding your vocabulary of poetry moves. “For me, meaning arrives, almost unbidden, from an accumulation of details,” says Ted Kooser, and we’re going to study how some modern masters make their poems work by focusing on details: physical, emotional and temporal, and their use of literary devices and motifs. We will then apply those lessons to our own poems. Discover how your poetic voice and vision emerge, change and grow. Poems from Arthur Sze, Mary Ruefle, Li-Young Lee and others help light our way. Come join us! Open to all writers.

http://atticinstitute.com/node/2874

Beginning Your Poetry Practice Workshop w Craig Brandis | Jan 16 – Feb 20 | Zoom

Have you recently begun to write poetry or now wish to? Learning to write poetry begins with looking at the world with a sense of wonder and curiosity. It begins with special affection for words and a desire to be in the company of other poets who feel the same. Maybe you just need a push — a practice? Each session in this workshop will begin with poetry games and in-class writing. Craft discussions, based on what we write and share, will help us follow the trail down to where things get true. Poems from Duo Duo, Kay Ryan and others help light our way. Share your work in an environment of acceptance and discovery.  Open to all writers. Come join us!

http://atticinstitute.com/node/2873

A Poem From Crying of Small Motors

Paddock Review has published the poem Cat Scan from my new book Crying of Small Motors (Finishing Line Press.) 

CAT Scan

of my skull in the surgeon’s office
like a Da Vinci post-mortem
a putty of shades
smeared by movement
in the brrr-ing machine
Newly pendulum-like
about multiple axes
as if a friend had sent
a funny birthday card
with a tilt-a-whirl
holographic skull
of a chimpanzee
front teeth protruding
lips blown out like someone
in a fool’s rage over
missed chances—
now I am bent over
under the weight of this
bloody hind quarter
in a slurry of guilt
rain and Glenlivet
The elk had run injured
had needed two shots
the truck still a half mile
and a creek crossing away
My feet like dead cod
I am losing my grip this
blood-slick carcass and all
the punk stars with long
sleeves of lime curd
dragging their chains over
and up the long hill

(first published in Trampoline)

My New Book – Crying of Small Motors

I’m pleased to tell you my new book of poetry, Crying of Small Motors, is now available from Finishing Line Press.  Here are some of the endorsements:  

“In Crying of Small Motors we hear a searingly honest voice that I come to poetry for…we trust the poet and follow him into increasingly strange, Tranströmer-like spaces: ‘Above the / small print / grasses, a horse’s / double field / of vision folds / the country / lengthwise.’ A mighty debut!” — John Wall Barger, author Smog Mother

“While reading each and every poem, I kept thinking to myself: Here is a poet, the real McCoy. Craig Brandis is a poet of work, for sure. He interrogates the industry, drudgery, grind, pains, and travails of what it’s like to swing a hammer for a living. But also, he is a poet of devotion and merriment and reverence for the same.” — David Biespiel, author A Place of Exodus

“It is intuitive to seek beauty in beautiful spaces, but these poems seek it in hard places, where the reward is more profound.” — Darren Morris, Poetry Editor Parhelion Literary Journal

To order, use the link below.  

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/crying-of-small-motors-by-craig-brandis/

Tumblehome

The Cafe Review, a lovely print journal based in Maine has published one of my poems — Tumblehome.

Sea Lion and four other poems

Parhelion Literary Magazine has published five of my poems: Sea Lion, Last Office, Operating Room, Berlin Wall and Concrete Starship.

Body Retrieval and one other poem

Trampoline has published two of my poems – Body Retrieval and How Life After Returning Home Makes You Up.

Monocle and Rose of Sharon

The American Journal of Poetry has published two of my poems: Monocle and Rose Of Sharon.

CAT Scan and First Light

Trampoline, a literary journal based in New Orleans, has published a couple of my poems: CAT Scan and First Light.

Live Birth and Other Poems

Parhelion has published a selection of some of my new poems.

Reading Some of My Poems

I was invited to read some of my poems for the 20th anniversary celebration of the Attic Institute for Literary Arts in Portland, Oregon. This poem is called Medic and is part of a manuscript I’ve been working on called Thicket of Arrows.

Commercial Fisherman

Palette Poetry has published one of my poems — Commercial Fisherman.

Loafing

The Alba Journal of Short Poetry has published one of my poems — Loafing. It took me a long time to realize that a poem does not need to end — it only needs to persist in its argument.